The Antitrust Prescription

Pharmaceutical manufacturers introduce new and improved versions of drugs as part of their research and development strategy. However, concerns about antitrust violations are raised when manufacturers are alleged to use anticompetitive tactics to stifle generic competition.

In the last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken several actions to challenge patents listed in the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Orange Book.

On June 6, a motion for summary judgment was granted in In re: Lipitor Antitrust Litigation, dismissing claims of a pay-for-delay settlement from Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Lipitor, to Ranbaxy.

Edgeworth experts Dr. George Korenko and Dr. Tram Nguyen describe FTC actions and recent court decisions and how they affect the recent state of economic analysis of antitrust impact for these alleged patent practices in the pharmaceutical industry.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are continually focused on investigating the impact of consolidation in healthcare. More recently, the agencies have expressed a renewed interest in for-profit medicine.

The 340B Drug Pricing Program is designed to increase access to affordable drugs for vulnerable patient populations. However, the success of the program and the complexity of the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program could result in the unintended effect of needlessly increasing costs to drug manufacturers and states.